A garden update:

The sunflowers are doing well. Flowering a month early in the Cobbled Garden at The Old White Horse, Bingley.

Broad beans healthy too.

The lavender is alive with Bees.

At home we have a regular supply of courgettes.

Runner beans starting to do their thing. Borage growing nearby is great for pollinators.

We've loads of Bees

this year. Wonder where they have come from!!

Runners need to be regularly watered especially once in flower and when pods form.

The updated advice from the RHS is not to mist or spray the flowers with water (as used to be advocated) as this has not been shown to help pods set and may actually deter bees!

Plenty of red flowers on the broadbeans and beetroot doing well.

Get in the fresh air and sun this weekend and enjoy the garden; yours or somebody else's 😀#

Gardening update:

Time to cut back and pull out some borage from the vegetable plot!

Once established borage can become invasive due to its rampant self-seeding and vigorous growth.

You can grow in pots to control it.

The Bees and other pollinators love borage. It's a helpful companion plant for courgettes and squashes.

I'm also dead heading and cutting back the chives; again so I can see what else is growing and to collect the seed heads. I collect in a large envelope. Give them a good shake so that the tiny

black seeds are left behind. The seeds can be scattered around now or if you prefer wait until spring or share with a friend.

Dividing clumps of chives is also a simple way to relocate or increase this brilliant herb.

I can now see the courgettes that are ready for picking and also the shallots that need to be lifted so they can dry a bit before being pickled. It's all go!